UPDATED: Rogers outage caused by a cyber attack?

For hapless Canucks, Friday the 8th turned out to be even more distressing than Friday the 13th. The "Please stand by" graphic Ed. posted on the 7th turned out to be oddly premonitory, as Canadians struggled to cope with a massive disruption of mobile and internet "service" provided by Rogers (aka "Robbers") Communications.

Canada's telecoms market is dominated by just three "service providers". [You understand why Walt is using quote marks, right? Ed.] -- Bell, Rogers and Telus. Knocking out their networks disrupts not just mobile phone calls, but money transfers (Interac, using debit cards), data exchange (problems for airlines, pharmacies, banks, etc), wi-fi (disastrous for those working from home) and even 9-1-1 service. 

But that's what happened yesterday, as Robbers customers  found themselves unconnected for most of the day. Last night, the company said it had restored mobile and internet service for the "vast majority: of its customers. However, it added, some customers may experience delays in regaining full service as its network comes back online and traffic volumes return to normal. 

In a statement posted to the company's social media channels (which customers of other telecoms companies could read, one presumes), Rogers apologized for the disruption the outage has caused to its customers and said it "will be proactively crediting" all customers. Which means: don't call us asking for a refund, we're already doing it. 

Tony Staffieri, CEO of Rogers, said in an open letter that the company apologizes for the service interruption but offered no explanation for the outage or how many customers were affected. Staffieri says Rogers "is committed to understanding the cause and would make changes to meet and exceed expectations in the future."

As of this morning, Rogers still hasn't said what caused their service to go down. Mr Staffieri said they would investigate "the root cause of this outage." Walt humbly suggests they read "FBI director calls China 'biggest' US threat; authorities warn of North Korean cyber attacks", posted on ABC News on July 6th.

The story quotes FBI Director Christopher Wray as saying the Chinese government (not those nice Chinese people, especially immigrants) is set on stealing our technology. Speaking alongside his British counterpart in London on Wednesday, Mr Wray called China the "biggest long-term threat" to both the US and the UK. (He didn't mention Canada because, no matter what Justin Trudeau says, Canada's not important.) 

"The Chinese government is set on stealing your technology -- whatever it is that makes your industry tick -- and using it to undercut your business and dominate your market," said Mr Wray, adding, "They're set on using every tool at their disposal to do it." 

Canada's telecoms, including Rogers, already use Huawei equipment, although M Trudeau (a great admirer of the ChiComms' ability "to get things done") now says they won't be allowing any new Huawei 5-G technology to be used in Canadian networks. Is it possible the Chinese (or North Koreans) hacked the Rogers network as a test, to see how easy it would be to throw a country into confusion and chaos? Just askin'....

UPDATE ADDED 10/7/22: Rogers Communications Inc. says it believes the massive system outage it suffered on Friday occurred after a maintenance update to its core network, but critics are unimpressed with the explanation after the telecom’s second major service interruption in two years.

This critic -- yr obdt svt -- wonders if Rogers would say anything different, if the massive outage had indeed been caused by hackers working for a hostile foreign government, which they (Rogers) did  not expect and could not control. Given the panic that would likely have ensured had they admitted such a huge security breach, would they not have said, "Oopsy. Our problem. We fixed it. Nothing to see here." Just askin'....

AL man charged with "interacting inappropriately" with a horse

From the state that voted for Doug Jones comes an interesting story, the first of this genre that we've seen in some time. [The last one was nearly five years ago: "Zoophilia still practised in Canada and Germany", WWW 20/1/13. You're welcome. Ed.]

Daniel Bennett, age 18, of Irvington AL, is a zoophile. Thanks, Ed., for reminding me of the proper term for someone who loves animals. Mr Bennett's particular love is horses. He really loves them! So much so that he stands accused of having broken into Francine Janes' barn in Mobile County last week. Upon being found by Ms Janes and her husband, Mr Bennett told them that "he likes horses," Ms Janes said. "He wanted to pet the horse."

Ms Janes thought there was a bit more to it than that. She told investigators from the Mobile Co. Sheriff's office she found what she believes to be evidence in her steed's stall several times throughout the month of December. "I would say seven maybe 10 times," she told the local TV station. "Toilet paper had been left. The hay stacks had been removed. Items had been turned over. And that's as far as I want to go."

Walt is pleased to report that the object of Mr Bennett's affections is a mare -- a female horse -- named Polly. Nothing wrong with Daniel... except that the horse is a couple of years older than he is, but I suppose one can't be choosy.

Ms Janes' husband reportedly held Mr Bennett at gunpoint until police arrived. Police reportedly discovered that Bennett had a trench coat with a burglar's tool in it. [No cheap jokes, please. Ed.] He was charged with possession of burglar's tools, sexual misconduct and second-degree criminal trespass. The arrest warrant calls bestiality a misdemeanor, claiming that Mr Bennett "engaged in or submitted to any sexual contact with an animal, to-wit: a horse."

Anyone planning on being in court for Mr Bennett's (scheduled for January 18th) is advised to arrive early. There is a rumor that Judge Roy Moore, not having business elsewhere, is seeking to return to the bench for the occasion.